Wisconsin vs. Purdue
Feb. 8, 2016
Madison, Wis.-- Kohl Center

UW Head Coach Bobbie Kelsey
Opening Statement:
"Well, obviously we are very excited about the win against a very quality opponent, one that probably will go to the NCAA tournament. It just shows you the resiliency of our bunch. That we don't give up, we keep fighting in spite of what others say or think about our team. We have a lot of fight in us and these kids have been very resilient, I give them all the credit. They could pack it in and quit and give up and feel sorry for themselves, but they just keep fighting and that's what I love about this team."
 
On the momentum dropping off in the fourth quarter:
"We just had some lazy passes, some stuff we don't normally do. We'll look at that and we'll have our practice guys pick us up and put that pressure on us so we don't make those same mistakes. But when you make a mistake you just have to continue to play and get the stop and make up for the mistake and I think we did that. But other teams will watch that and say 'Hey, pick them up.' You don't want teams to be able to say, 'You don't handle pressure well.' The passes are just late, they're not sharp, they're not crisp, they don't have any zip on them and if they're lazy and you float them up there, maybe I get them with my high heels on."
 
On calling out a timeout with 90 seconds left:
"I was just trying to calm us down. We were just being frantic and I felt like it was just too much going on. Sometimes you just have to call them to get people to calm down and make sure everybody knows what we're doing when it goes back down to the other end of the floor. I tried to keep (time outs) so I can use them at the end. We want to always have one in the back so you can advance the ball, so we had to plan to advance it if we needed to just to keep it down at your end because if they steal it, they still have to go all the way down the court. It's just to get everybody to calm down."

On Nicole Bauman's drive and make in the final minute:
"Cayla's (McMorris) shot was big, Michala's (Johnson) shot was big. (Michala) screened her girl out so Nicole could turn the corner and get a shot. A lot of things happened. Cayla is going down, we're like, 'Get up, you're fine' and she's dying out there, but that's what it takes. You're on a team, it's not one, two (or) three people. You need everybody picking it up, carrying their weight, and doing their job. When you have that, who knows? You can have a chance to win the game."
 
On Michala Johnson's perimeter shot:
"She's worked on it. Mickey stays back, she stays after practice, she'll grab one of the practice guys and they'll rebound for her and those are the same shots she hit tonight. You just have to get in the gym, you have to. If there was an easier way, trust me, i would have found it. I would have found it 25 years ago when I played. There's not an easy way, if you want something you have to work for it. Period."
 
Dakota Whyte
On whether or not the plan was to be more assertive tonight:
"Yeah. I think that Coach Kelsey, her talks lately have been, 'Get your butt in the gym.' That's definitely something that I did do, and I feel like that brought a lot more confidence to my game, just knowing that I worked on those shots before. Doing cone drills and picking the shots that I want, I feel like that gave me the confidence to go out there and just do what I do best."
 
On playing a complete game:
"I think it was just taking every possession one possession at a time, that's what I told everybody at the beginning of the game. Just making sure that we execute, but it definitely helps when your shots are falling in. We O-boarded and we rebounded so that gave us many opportunities to get the ball in the basket."

Michala Johnson
On her best performance this season:
"I really wasn't thinking about scoring in this game. I was actually just focusing on boxing out and rebounding. All of the coaches are on me in practice and every game, boxing out, rebounds. I knew my points would just come and I was just being patient out there the whole time."

On winning after a seven-game losing streak:
"It means a lot to us. Whether we win or lose, we're still fighting and we're never giving up. It feels good to win but we have to continue to keep fighting from here on for the rest of the games we have." 
 
On her perimeter shot:
"I've been working on it, on my jump shot lately. I noticed that a lot of teams play off of me or they play me for the drive, so they're leaving me open. I have to shoot it."
 
Nicole Bauman
On playing a complete game:
"What Dakota said, obviously you have to win the quarters to win. We took it one possession at a time and we were on the offensive boards. We got a few put backs that really helped us and also they didn't have as many offensive boards as teams have had on us in the past and that really helped us."

On winning after a seven-game losing streak:
"We definitely want to build on this. We play Michigan next, and then (Indiana). Those two teams are definitely beatable, so we want to keep winning and we want to build on this."
 
On if the team's improving due to the season winding down or the players are working better together:
"I think it's both. We realize that we only have a few more games left, it's hard to think about. But like you said when we all play well and together, we win. We just have to bring that every single night."
 
On what she was thinking on her final drive:
"Make the shot.  We just wanted to get it down to the last possible second, to waste some time off the clock and then spread the floor, drive, and just see what I had. When one of the key (players) didn't hop in, I was able to turn the corner."